More ePortfolio Big Picture Questions…
Further to a previous post I have added three new discussion questions to use when thinking about some of big underlying themes surrounding eportfolios.
I can’t take credit for the thinking behind these questions as they have stemmed from comments left on this blog or through face to face discussions when visiting schools.
So here is the first one:
Thanks to Jamin Lietze, who left this comment:
…what measures is the school going to put in place so that there are consistencies between classroom ePortfolios? Parents will compare and complain if one teacher is not perceived as doing much.
I don’t know if my question reflects exactly the point Jamin is making, mine is more related to surface features but will recraft it at some stage. Jamin refers to the content and makes a valid point. Often in schools we ask for consistency and commonalities in ‘school-wide’ approaches to teaching and learning. There are core values and beliefs that guide what we do. At a different level schools may develop guidelines that describe expectations for such areas as planning and assessment. Is it therefore necessary to develop guidelines for eportfolios, what goes in them and how often? Or would this defeat the purpose of a student directed, student owned eportfolio that supports the learner and instead become a prescriptive teacher directed product?
Question 2:
A conversation with Deidre Alderson, principal of Willowbank School prompted this question. We were discussing eportfolios and getting parents online and involved in leaving comments and giving feedback to their children in these online spaces. I outlined how in my research parents of year 3 and 4 students showed a much higher involvement than those at year 5 and 6. We discussed a number of reasons why this may be which I also discussed in my research. Deidre had a new perspective on this. She suggests that how students want to get feedback and the form that feedback takes changes over time. For example, a younger student may really respond to and deliberately seek out feedback yet an older student may only want feedback when they specifically ask for it and perhaps not from you as a teacher or parent at all. While the eportfolio is only one of many ways to give feedback to students, is the feedback we are giving online inline with what they want, regardless of whether it is technically correct (purposeful, specific, related to criteria, includes next steps etc).
Question 3:
Thanks to Kathy Paterson and Carol Brieseman who both felt this question was worthy to be mentioned.Kathy asks:
perhaps there could be a question directed at the use and management of eportfolios for staff journeys?
Supported by Carol:
Staff documenting their own learning as an e-portfolio would help build confidence that may not be there at present.
I agree. As simple as the saying ‘walk the talk’ is, no more could it be truer here. And what a rich authentic alternative to an appraisal checklist type approach to teaching competency. Not to mention the reflective practice involved in an eportfolio that sits hand in hand with the teaching as inquiry approach to knowledge building. Why wouldn’t you want staff to have their own?
So there we go. Three more questions to discuss if you intend heading down the eportfolio route or if you are in the process of review how you are implementing them currently.
Once again, would love to hear of any questions or areas that I have not considered!
Special thanks to:
Photo 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/
Photo 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/raigverd/
Photo 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/torres21/
Hi Nick,
In response to the three questions – and good ones by the way!
#1 – yes and no. The content is paramount and the key thing is to have a structure in mind (template?) at the beginning point. I think kids will evolve their portfolios over time (and the fact that they are theirs in my mind probably says it all). I would hate to see us all producing templates each year that have the kids simply digitising content to produce an e-version of a paper portfolio. What is the point of the e bit?
#2 – I am not sure your question is phrased to capture the point of being a teacher. We are not simply responding to what the kids want. There are many, many occasions where the teacher HAS to take the lead and provide the feedback the kid NEEDS, not simply what they think they may want. Student voice and student control are not the same thing; and this is something I am seeing people quite confused about in a number of blog posts recently.
#3 – abso-bloody-lutely!! This provides a context and purpose for teachers to ‘play’ in meaningful ways with the process and find what is useful and powerful for them. If nothing else this is a way of getting to grips with the detail of the technology.
my stream of consciousness on the issues you raise ….
and having said these things I know we have a way to go at our school to roll out this for our staff and kids.
cheers
Greg
Hi Nick,
I am interested in question 3 as my work is with teachers (secondary) and the registered teacher criteria. Looking at Dr Helen Barrett’s work on eportfolios http://electronicportfolios.com/ there are 2 types of portfolio the process portfolio (teaching as inquiry cycle and reflection) and the product for a particular purpose eg registration, appraisal, job application etc. Teachers need to keep evidence for both appraisal and registration. So it follows that you keep one lot of evidence in your process journal which includes artefacts or links to artefacts and then you select from that for the end product sort of journal.
In working with newly trained teachers, we are trying to develop them as agentic, reflective practitioners – agentic meaning that they believe they can make changes, and reflective that they stop to inquire into their practice rather than taking a deficit position where they blame everyone and everything but themselves. Blame being the wrong word of course, because we are all on a learning journey which has no end.
So the ideal is that all teachers would have an eportfolio that they contibute to on a regular basis eg at the end of a lesson taking 5 minutes to reflect on what has happened and what the next steps are but the reality is not many of them see this as valuable. Appraisal and registration are often seen as just compliance.